The South Bend Tribune didn’t miss a beat 98 years ago when it moved into its new home at 225 W. Colfax Ave.
The Tribune published its Saturday edition at its old office at 128 N. Main St. on April 23, 1921, then immediately made the move to the newly constructed Tribune building at the corner of Colfax Avenue and Lafayette Boulevard. There was no newspaper April 24, because The Tribune didn’t publish on Sundays in that era. On April 25, the next edition rolled off the new Goss high-speed press in the newspaper’s new headquarters.
In April 1921, the nation was in the midst of Prohibition and Warren G. Harding was in the White House. Locally, Robertson Brothers department store was advertising girls summer frocks for $1 to $2.98. Hollywood star Tom Mix was featured in his latest silent film, “The Road Demon,” on the silver screen at the Auditorium Theatre on South Michigan Street. And a new Studebaker Light-Six roadster could be bought for $1,650.
The South Bend Tribune already was an established business of 49 years. The Tribune printed its first edition on March 9, 1872. It was founded by two Union veterans of the Civil War, Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett. In May 1873, The Tribune began daily publication, making it the first daily newspaper in the city.
The new brick building at 225 W. Colfax Ave. became the Tribune’s fourth home. The newspaper’s founding location was at 127 W. Washington St. In 1885, The Tribune moved its offices around the corner, into a storefront in the newly constructed Oliver Opera House on North Main Street. In 1892, the paper moved a few doors north, to a newly built Tribune building at 128 N. Main St.
Ground was broken for the new Tribune building on Dec. 1, 1919. A photograph shows co-founder Elmer Crockett, shovel in hand, turning over soil at the site, with a horse-drawn wagon in the background. Also visible is F.A. Miller, son of the other founder, who joined the Tribune as a reporter in 1887 and worked for the paper for the next 67 years as a reporter, editor and longtime publisher.
The new Tribune building was made of concrete and steel, three stories tall, and clad in reddish-brown brick with a gray granite base and terra cotta details. It was built to support up to three additional floors at a later date, if needed. The building was designed by Austin & Shambleau, a prominent South Bend architectural firm, and it was built by H.G. Christman, a well-known local construction company.
The building’s foundation was crafted to support the new Goss printing press, which weighed 60 tons. Local residents could watch the press run through the building’s first-floor windows. The basem*nt was large enough to store 1,000 tons of newsprint.
The building’s front staircase is of Tennessee marble, its steps now visibly worn from 98 years of use. The staircase has a polished oak handrail.
“New home of the South Bend Tribune” the newspaper proclaimed above a photo of the building in the May 11, 1921 special edition marking the building’s dedication and public tours. A copy of The Tribune in those days sold for 3 cents.
During the 1920s, The Tribune each fall erected a large Playograph machine on the side of the building to “show” World Series baseball games to crowds that gathered below. The giant electric scoreboard featured a reproduction of a baseball diamond and each team’s lineup. The device simulated each pitch, with the help of a telegraph operator who would watch the game live and transmit details to the board operators. Sometimes more than 1,000 people turned out to “watch” a game, prompting the city to close sections of Colfax and Lafayette.
The Tribune’s arch competitor, the South Bend News-Times, was based nearby at the southwest corner of Colfax Avenue and Main Street. After lively competition between the two papers throughout the 1920s and most of the 1930s, the News-Times ceased publishing on Dec. 27, 1938, leaving South Bend a one-newspaper town.
The Tribune’s third floor originally housed a dining room and an auditorium with space to seat 500 people. It was used for banquets, speakers, dances and other events.
That floor later was converted into a studio for WSBT radio, which started in 1922. In 1952, the third floor became a TV studio when The Tribune started its own station, later known as WSBT-TV.
The Tribune building has been expanded at least five times.
From 1949 to 1951, the building was extensively remodeled, and expanded on the north and east sides. The interior space nearly doubled, to 1.4 million square feet.
In 1962, The Tribune bought the vacant former Elks Temple just east on Colfax Avenue and moved some of its operations there. In 1986, The Tribune demolished the former Elks building and built a two-story addition. In 1991, the newspaper bought the long vacant former Colfax Theater from the city and demolished it, replacing it with a $10 million, two-story addition.
In 1993, the Tribune built a new $26 million printing facility north of the main building, and installed new printing presses. The Tribune ceased printing the paper at its own facility in 2017 and outsourced the printing operation to a facility near Grand Rapids, Mich.
